Geoscience after IT: Part M. Business requirements that drive the information system, and provide coherent frameworks

The roles of participants in the information system are changing, and this is reflected in their business groupings and motivation. IT brings greater flexibility to the record, but without a coherent framework, cyberspace becomes a chaotic sludge of trivial ephemera. Cataloging and indexing, peer review by editorial boards and the disciplined approach of information communities can impose the necessary order and standards. Metadata and data models can help to maintain a clear structure for geoscience. Business aspects link the objectives of the investigator to the framework of the science, defining the logic of reorganization and providing incentives to drive the system.